Not only would catching those three thieves identify the culprit behind the incident, it would also be reason enough to get the other party to share their horses with Yun Ruoyan’s party. And if they still refused, well, they would have an excuse for stealing the horses from them.

Yun Ruoyan, Yun Moxiao, and Zhuo Yifeng waited all the way till midnight without seeing any sign of the horse thieves. This eight-man party had caught up to the pack after last night’s incident, and the three horse thieves were unlikely to let the party go. However, it wasn’t certain that they would act that night.

As the night grew darker with still no sign of the horse thieves in sight, they appeared.

Yun Ruoyan, Yun Moxiao, and Zhuo Yifeng almost simultaneously detected the existence of those three horse thieves, who emerged sneakily from the other side of the campsite as they snuck toward the eight firesteeds.

Zhuo Yifeng cocked his bow and aimed at one of the thieves. At the same time, Qiuqiu chirped, “Mistress, the strong aura has appeared again.”

Yun Ruoyan could also feel the aura, but strangely, neither Yun Moxiao nor Zhuo Yifeng seemed to be able to detect it. Just as she was about to ask them if they’d felt anything, Zhuo Yifeng shot out an arrow.

With a clean snick, the arrow landed in one of the men’s thigh, but no painful groan sounded. Instead, that man only glanced back once before pulling the arrow out and throwing it aside, then continuing to head toward the horses as if he didn’t feel any pain.

“What’s going on?!”

“Look at that man’s thigh,” Yun Ruoyan exclaimed.

The wound was leaking an unusual dark fog. None of them had ever encountered such a situation before, and they were all shocked by the side.

“Mistress, the strong aura vanished again.”

Zhuo Yifeng released another arrow; this time, one of the special tiger-canine ones. Pulling his bow all the way back, he shot the tiger-canine arrow straight into one of the men’s brains, and he fell limply to the floor. However, nothing dripped out, neither brains nor blood. Instead, what emerged was another bout of black fog.

Slowly, that black fog filled the entire campsite and the eight sleeping youths inside.

“Ahem, ahem! My goodness, where did this black fog come from? Wake up! Ahem, ahem!” Of the eight youths sleeping like pigs, one finally awoke. As he coughed, he tried to stir the others awake.

“What’s going on?!”

“I can’t breathe! Ahem, ahem!”

Not good—the fog is poisonous! As soon as Yun Ruoyan, Yun Moxiao, and Zhuo Yifeng encountered the fog, they shared the same thought and retreated immediately. As she stepped back, Yun Ruoyan pulled out three antidotes and handed one each to Yun Moxiao and Zhuo Yifeng. The three of them swiftly retreated to where they had set up camp, then hurriedly ran away from the fog with Lin Qingxue and Lin Qingchen in tow.

Lin Qingxue and Lin Qingchen had no clue what was going on. When they finally stopped, she asked curiously, “What’s the matter? Did you guys encounter a beast attack? But aren’t there no beasts in the Kongming Mountains?”

“Not beasts, but poison.” Yun Ruoyan recounted all that she had witnessed within the last hour to Lin Qingchen and Lin Qingxue.

She had never encountered such a situation—how could regular men be spouting out poisonous fog?! She asked Qiuqiu if it had a possible explanation, but Lin Qingchen jumped in before it could reply. “I’ve read about these so-called ‘medicinal puppets’ in a book, which seem to share some characteristics with the men you’ve described.”

Allegedly, these men looked no different in external appearance from regular people, but their will was controlled by their master and creator. They were often used to poison others; even if they were found out and killed beforehand, they would immediately emit a poisonous fog as a kamikaze attack.

After Lin Qingchen finished her description, Qiuqiu added that the men could also be puppets from the demon race, used for the same purpose. However, given that the demon race had been sealed for millennia, Lin Qingchen’s proposal was far more likely.

Someone who could manufacture such medicinal puppets had to be a renowned poisoner. That he was only poisoning their steeds rather than the students themselves indicated that he didn’t want to make a big deal of things, and was likely employed by one of the more prestigious noble families on the continent.

The aura that she and Qiuqiu had sensed likely came from that poisoner.

“Brother, Zhuo Yifeng, did either of you detect a strong aura that appeared intermittently during the attack?”

Yun Moxiao and Zhuo Yifeng glanced at each other before shaking their heads simultaneously.

Yun Ruoyan felt even more confused: why had she and Qiuqiu been the only two to feel that aura? Yun Moxiao’s cultivation was higher than hers, and he should have felt it even more strongly.

“Shall we head back and have a look?” Lin Qingchen suddenly suggested. “I’ve only ever heard of these medicinal puppets, and I’d like to have a closer look.”

“I’m also somewhat curious,” Lin Qingxue added. Forced to help out in her sister’s bamboo garden, she had slowly but steadily grown less scared of unusual phenomena.

When the sun rose up once more, and the fog had more or less dissipated, Yun Ruoyan’s party went back to take a look at the scene. All eight youths and all eight horses had been poisoned to death; just like last time, their gums were bleeding, their eyes bulging and slightly turning green.

Neither Lin Qingchen nor Qiuqiu could identify the poison. According to Qiuqiu, all sorts of new poisons were being developed daily, and this was likely one such novel poison.

Lin Qingchen extracted a little blood from one of the victims, preparing to study it afterwards. Rather than bury the eight corpses, they decided to leave the campsite untouched to report the crime to the personnel at Kongming Academy once they arrived.

Being unable to get any horses, the party could only continue on foot. Now that it was already the third day, and the deadline for the trial just one day away, the party had all but given up. Instead, they planned on having Yun Moxiao send Yun Ruoyan to the Kongming Summit at daybreak the next day.

Although Yun Moxiao was able to soar on his sword, swordflight was particularly taxing on his spiritual energy reserves, and he had to rest frequently along the way. As a result, the two of them had to set off early in the morning.

At dawn, the Yun siblings prepared to leave. Just as Yun Moxiao prepared his yellow sword aura, they heard a large troop of horses gathering from afar, and the party all looked at each other with bright gazes. If there were no other choice, then they would steal from whatever unlucky group crossed their path.

Yun Moxiao stowed his sword. The party stood in the middle of the wide path, waiting for the horses to approach. Moments later, the horses arrived by a bend in the road.

Yun Ruoyan frowned, because she had seen two people that she didn’t want to meet: Pei Ziao and Wang Meng. How had those two ended up together?

What was more surprising to Yun Ruoyan was that Wang Meng clearly hadn’t taken part in the imperial expedition. Why would he appear here? Was he sending someone off, just like Yun Moxiao?

Wang Meng’s horse raced at the forefront, the leader of this party. Pei Ziao followed quickly behind.

Yun Ruoyan’s gaze swept over the other members of the party. Except for Pei Ziao, she didn’t recognize anyone else present. Because the Li and Yue kingdom’s attire were rather similar, she couldn’t discern their nationality from their outfits.

The sight of a dozen steeds racing was rather spectacular.

Yun Moxiao stood at the forefront of their party, and Zhuo Yifeng’s bow was cocked. Yun Ruoyan prepared to summon her Feilai Blade at an instant.

Although the other group had a rather large number of people, Yun Ruoyan’s party was likely stronger. If they didn’t stop, then Yun Ruoyan’s party would immediately attack, their goal being to seize four horses and run off.

Luckily, Wang Meng saw the party from afar and motioned for the horses to stop before they reached them.

Wang Meng trotted up to the party. “Slaughtering King’s consort, why aren’t you guys on your way to the summit?”

“Don’t call me the Slaughtering King’s consort,” Yun Ruoyan said, inclining her head to look at Wang Meng. “I’m not, not yet.”

“Young Master Wang, our steeds have been poisoned to death, and we’ve been on foot the last two days,” Yun Moxiao replied.

Yun Ruoyan had told her brother about her upcoming challenge with Wang Meng, so Yun Moxiao knew of him. Furthermore, he had also seen him at the auction house in Yuelu Villa.

On the other hand, Wang Meng had never seen Yun Moxiao before.

“May I ask who you are, Young Master?”

“I’m Yun Moxiao, Yun Ruoyan’s brother.”

“Ah, so it’s the Slaughtering King—Miss Yun’s brother. A pleasure to meet you.” Wang Meng immediately cupped his fists. If he hadn’t heard his sister’s thoughts about the man beforehand, Yun Moxiao would have found Wang Meng a rather pleasant young master.

Yun Moxiao cupped his fists as well. He continued, “If we’re to continue travelling on foot, I’m afraid we won’t be able to make the trial. May I ask to borrow three steeds from your party, Young Master Wang?”

“Of course!” Wang Meng’s straightforward agreement left Yun Ruoyan’s party taken aback. By the time they had recovered from their shock, Wang Meng had already assigned four steeds to their party.

“My gratitude, Young Master Wang.” Yun Ruoyan’s party thanked the young master before climbing onto the steeds and joining their party.

Because of the impending deadline, no one spoke overmuch as they galloped. Instead of stopping for lunch, they simply ate as they rode; after another afternoon’s long trek, they finally stopped to pitch a camp and rest.

Yun Ruoyan’s group of five set up a separate campfire by the side.

Pei Ziao was no longer as clingy to Yun Ruoyan as before, but his gaze couldn’t help drifting to her from time to time. On the other hand, Yun Ruoyan simply pretended that he didn’t exist. What she really was concerned about was Wang Meng—why would the man appear here?